Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T15:21:36.600Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Walmart Effect: Testing Private Interventions to Reduce Gun Suicide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2021

Ian Ayres ,
Zachary Shelley  and
Fredrick E. Vars
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article tests the impact of Walmart's corporate decisions to end the sale of handguns at its stores in 1994 and to discontinue the sale of all firearms at approximately 59% of its stores in 2006 before resuming firearms sales at some of those stores in 2011. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that that from 1994 to 2005 counties with Walmarts robustly experienced a reduction in the suicide rate and experienced no change in the homicide rate. These models suggest that Walmart's policy change caused a 3.3 to 7.5% reduction in the suicide rate within affected counties, which represents an estimated 5,104 to 11,970 lives saved over the studied period (425-998 per year). In contrast, Walmart's 2006 and 2011 decisions to discontinue and subsequently resume the sale of rifles and shotguns in many of its stores was not associated with a robustly measured effect on homicide or suicide rates. We do find evidence that Walmart's 2006 decision to reduce the number of its stores that sold firearms caused a statistically significant reduction in the suicide rate for counties in which Walmart did not subsequently resume firearms sales.

Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 48 , Issue S4: Gun Violence in America: An Interdisciplinary Examination , Winter 2020 , pp. 74 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

“Dick's Sporting Goods Will Stop Selling Guns at 440 More Stores,” FOX 4, March 10, 2020, available at <https://fox4kc.com/news/dicks-sporting-goods-will-stop-selling-guns-at-440-more-stores/> (last visited October 24, 2020). (last visited October 24, 2020).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=“Dick's+Sporting+Goods+Will+Stop+Selling+Guns+at+440+More+Stores,”+FOX+4,+March+10,+2020,+available+at++(last+visited+October+24,+2020).>Google Scholar
Walmart, Firearms and Ammunition Guidelines, available at <https://corporate.walmart.com/policies> (last visited August 27, 2020).+(last+visited+August+27,+2020).>Google Scholar
Cummings, P. et al., “The Association between the Purchase of a Handgun and Homicide or Suicide,” American Journal of Public Health 87, no. 6 (1997): 974-978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Studdert, D. et al., “Handgun Ownership and Suicide in California,” New England Journal of Medicine 382 (2020): 2220-2229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steelesmith, D. et al., “Contextual Factors Associated with County-Level Suicide Rates in the United States, 1999 to 2016,” JAMA Network Open 2, no. 9 (2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, G. et al., “Looking Down the Barrel of a Loaded Gun: The Effect of Mandatory Handgun Purchase Delays on Homicide and Suicide,” Economic Journal 218, no. 616 (2017): 3117-3140.Google Scholar
Sen, B. and Panjamapirom, A., “State Background Checks for Gun Purchase and Firearm Deaths: An Exploratory Study,” Preventive Medicine 55, no. 4 (2012): 346-350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
How Gun Policies Affect Gun Suicide, RAND, available at <https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/suicide.html> (last visited October 24, 2020).+(last+visited+October+24,+2020).>Google Scholar
Wright, M., Wintemute, G., and Claire, B., “Gun Suicide by Young People in California: Descriptive Epidemiology and Gun Ownership,” Journal of Adolescent Health 43, no. 6 (2008): 619-622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, T., The Diffusion of Wal-Mart and Economies of Density, available at <http://users.econ.umn.edu/~holmes/data/WalMart/index.html> (last visited August 27, 2020).+(last+visited+August+27,+2020).>Google Scholar
Data sources are discussed in detail in the Appendix.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Cook, P. et al., “Some Sources of Crime Guns in Chicago: Dirty Dealers, Straw Purchasers, and Traffickers,” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 104 (2014): 717-760, at 727. (“[T]here are still no retail dealers in the city limits [of Chicago].”)Google Scholar